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Lady Antebellum vs. The Alan Parsons Project

Lady Antebellum took home Song of The Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards for their song “Need You Now”. In 1982 British progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project released “Eye in the Sky” which shares a resemblance to the “Need You Know” melody. Have a listen!

I am a member of the Recording Academy (60’s recording artist, writer) I went to the Grammy’s and Lady Antebellum won song of the year, I was shocked, not just because of better songs, but the melody was not original. I couldn’t remember the song (big hit Eye in the Sky), but I was sure they must have taken an old song and changed the words. Well all I had to do was Google and a lot of others thought the same. They took credit for writhing the tune! Not since George Harrison ripped off “He’s So Fine” and changed it to “My Sweet Lord” have I heard one so close; (Harrison lost in court on that one). Most song writers have enough pride, that they do not purposely steal, but do so unwittingly and have it in their subconscious in my opinion.

My thrill at the Grammys was congratulting Neil Young on his first solo Grammy, and conversations with Scott Bennett of Brian Wilson’s recent CD’s. THANK YOU FOR THIS GREAT WEBSITE!

I am in Rockabilly Hall of fame inductee 200 as Keith O’Conner and as Torkays. See rockabillyhall.con
Recorded for Stacy Records. Also for King as one of few whites as Keith Murphy and the Daze. Also Polydor in UK. Latest song Tiddlywink on German group Black Raven CD and Vinyl Rock in Threes. My song on new comp album out of UK Electric Coffee House. Also see my later bio on 60sgaragebands.com

Give me a break, people. Of course it’s a ripoff.
You think that if someone wants to rip off a song they would do it in the same key and tempo? Different octave, tempo and key doesn’t mean the song is original if the melody is the same.

The idiot who said that there are only 12 notes in Western music should study a little math, namely the formula for permutations.
For 12 notes, the formula would be: 12! = 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8x9x10x11x12 = 479,001,600
That’s over 479 million people. And I’m only considering combinations of notes. You also have to consider the length of notes (whole, half, quarters, etc.), the time signature and other factors. The odds of someone independently coming up with the same melody, a combination of the same musical phrase, are astronomical.

By the way, Lady Gaga ripped off “You and I” from “What’s up” by 4 Non Blondes and Coldplay (“Yes”) ripped off Joe Satriani (“If I could fly”). If I were Alan Parsons, I’d be pissed.

That’s true, but mainstream music isn’t atonal, it’s diatonic with varying degrees of chromaticism, or use of passing semitones, so that’s roughly 7 notes, except pentatonic patterns can be desirable and it can only take two, three or four notes, etc. for us to recognise a similarity. If you watch Will We Ever Run Out of New Music, the guy in the video states that there is really too much room to move and our brains aren’t really interested in that; instead our brains like to come up with melodies that are connected to others.

This does complicate legal matters and so the most plausible scenarios are the ones that should be considered, for example, I wouldn’t want to consider the possibility of premonition-that the one who came first came up with the song by predicting that someone later would write it.

I am a songwriter who’s had songs on the radio and I’m telling you that record companies ENCOURAGE their artists to write and record songs close to something that’s been a hit already and artists want to be ON the radio so bad that they’ll do it! It’s all about MONEY, especially in Pop, Contemporary Christain and Country. Every songwriter and artist wants a hit on the radio and they don’t care how they get it. It’s all a bunch of crap which is why I don’t listen to the radio anymore. Labels and publishers tell their writers and artists to “write a song like this”. There’s a saying in the record business: If you hear a good song, write it’. Enough said.

Hi Michael,
Thanks for the perspective. It’s a tough place to be as an artist and sometimes it might seem like the only way to “make it” is to give in. I would think some artists can at least use that initial “sellout” hit to jumpstart their career. It’d be nice to make a living doing something you love but when you compromise yourself, eh, that’s a different story.